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Report of the Kansas 
Vicksburg National Park 

MEMORIAL COMMISSION 



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December 1, 1920 



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OF THE 



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ViCKSBURG National Park 

M EM () RIAL Co M M I SSI O N 



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December 1, 1920 



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THE KANSAS M('KSIUK(i NATION \L I'ARK 

MKMOKIAL COMMISSION. 



ToPEKA, Kan., December, r.)20. 

To His E.rcellciK If, Hiiiiii J. Alhii. 
Governor of Kansas: 

We have the honor to transmit herewith a preliminary sur- 
vey, cuts, designs and probable cost of a suitable memorial and 
statues to be erected on the V'icksburg battle iield. \'icksburg- 
National Military Park. 

This memorial is to commemorate the valor of the Kansas 
soldiers who took part in the Vicksburg campaign, which began 
March 29, 1863. with General Grant's order to advance, and 
closed July 4, 1863, with the surrender of General Pemijerton's 
Confederate army and the city of Vicksburg to the Union 
forces. Respectfully submitted, 

Ira F. Collins, 
Theodore Gardner, 
W. W. Bowman, 

Mpmbers of Commissio)!. 

(3) 



CHAPTER 319, 
SESSION LAWS OF KANSAS, 1919. 

lMU)Vl!)IXi_; l-Oll TIIK AITOINTilKXT BY THE GOVKKNOK OF TIIK VKKS 
BURG XATIOXAI- PARK MEMORIAL COMMISSIOX AXl) MAKING IT THEIR 
DUTY TO RECOMMEND A SUITABLE MEMORIAL FOR THE KANSAS CIRCLE 
IN VICKSUURli NATIONAL MILITARY PARK. 

(Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 22.) 

For tlie iippointnient liy the governor of this state of a commission of citizens of Kansas 
til consider anil recuniinend a suitable memorial to be erected in the Kmhs.is Circle of 
the Vicksburg National Park, at Vick.sburg, Mississippi. 

Rr.idlred by the Stniate of the Stale of Kansas, the Uuii.se of Repii sriit(tlirrn rfineinriii'/ 
therein : 

That the governor of Kansas be and he is hereby authorized to appoint 
a commission of three (3) citizens of this state, to be designated and 
known as the Vicksburg- National Park Memorial Commission, the mem- 
bers thereof to serve without any compensation except only their actual 
necessary expenses, which expenses shall be paid by the state treasurer 
upon warrants issued by the auditor of state, out of any funds not other- 
wise appropriated, upon the sworn voucher therefor being filed by the 
members of said commission. It shall be the duty of this commission 
to consider and recommend to the governor and legislature of this state 
a suitable and appropriate memorial by the state of Kansas, to be con- 
structed and erected upon the area known as the Kansas Circle in the 
Vicksburg National Military Park at Vicksburg, Mississippi, to com- 
memorate the devotion and patriotism of the officers and enlisted men of 
the First Kansas infantry regiment during the military operations in 
1863 in and about the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. 

After they have considered and agreed upon such memorial, said com- 
mission shall report its findings in writing to the governor of this state, 
together with an estimate of the cost of the construction and erection of 
said memorial, which findings and recommendations shall be communi- 
cated to the governor at the next session of the legislature after the same 
are filed with him. 

Approved March 14 1919. 

(5) 




PROPOSED KANSAS MKMOKIAL. 



THE KANSAS MEMORIAL. 



The monument proposed to be erected by the people of Kan- 
sas in the Vicksburg National Military Park, Vicksburg, Miss., 
to commemorate the devotion, patriotism and heroic service of 
the gallant First Kansas infantry in the campaign and siege 
of Vicksburg, will be one worthy of the honor and dignity and 
patriotic spirit of the people of this great state. During the 
operations commemorated this regiment served as mounted 
infantry at Lake Providence, Louisiana, with its brigade, and 
by order of General Grant, for which reason the Kansas Circle, 
upon which the Kansas memorial will be placed, was reserved 
on Grant avenue, environed by the state memorials of Rhode 
Island, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Penn- 
sylvania, and Illinois' great equestrian statue of Grant, already 
in place — a distinct and signal honor to Kansas. The circle 
covers about one acre, rising in the form of a mound, beautiful 
for situation, excelled by none in the entire park area. 

The memorials contemplated include : 

1. A heroic statue of Abraham Lincoln by America's famed sculptor, 
George Grey Barnard, placed in front central position. 

2. At the right a life statue in bronze of Charles Robinson, Civil 
War governor of Kansas. 

3. At the left a life size statue in bronze of George W. Deitzler, colonel 
of the First Kansas volunteer regiment of infantry, which was mustered 
into service under the first call for volunteers, sei'ving four years and 
six months. During this service the First Kansas participated in twenty- 
six battles and skirmishes, and were the only Kansas troops that took 
part in the Vicksburg campaign. 

4. On the granite structure, circular in form, rising back of and 
surrounding the statues of Lincoln, Robinson and Deitzler, bronze tablets 
are to be placed bearing the names of all the officers and men of the First 
Kansas regiment; and from its center a granite shaft, rising 40 feet, to 
a point 75 feet above grade of roadway. The extreme width across the 
base at grade line is 48 feet; the extreme distance from roadway to rear 
line, 59 feet; height of exedra wall above platform, (i feet ten inches. 

The estimates of the amount necessary to complete this 
memorial according to the proposed designs call for an appro- 
priation of $125,000. 



Kansas Vicksburg National Park 




Memorial Commissio)i. 9 

After a careful survey, your commission retained the serv- 
ices of William B. Munclie, of Chicago, one of the foremost 
artists and architects of the country, to prepare the plans and 
specifications here submitted. A large number of the best 
memorials on the Vicksburg field have been produced under his 
direction. 

Changes will without doubt be made from the designs here 
presented, to the end that economies may be effected and the 
most perfect artistic harmonies prevail. 

The Commission brings to your attention, and through you 
to the attention of the legislature of Kansas, the fact that up 
to this time the state of Kansas, which shared so conspicuously 
in the struggles and triumphs of the Civil War, has not a 
single monument on any battle field to commemorate the deeds 
and the devotion of her valiant defenders. 

It is a significant fact also, and one worthy of special men- 
tion, that to Kansas was first accorded permission by the War 
Department to include as a part of the Kansas memorial a 
statue of the immortal Lincoln, and by a like dispensation the 
right to include the statue of Kansas' War governor, Charles 
Robinson. 

VICKSBURG AND KANSAS. 

From the Central Western states came 95 per cent of the 
troops Grant used in the Vicksburg campaign. These hardy 
westerners were the first to break through the Confederate 
guard lines that for more than two years had held impregnable 
against the Union forces and saved the South from invasion. 

The siege of Vicksburg gave to the Union armies the first 
decisive results. 

The Civil War over, thousands of these young soldiers 
sought new homes where all opportunities were equal, Kansas 
caught more of these young patriots than any other state or 
territory. Conservative estimates give Kansas to-day more 
than 100,000 who are the descendants of Union soldiers who 
fought at Vicksburg. They are the loyal, patriotic promoters 
of progressive citizenship who have laid so well the foundation 
on which is built this great young state. 

Kansas has spent unbegrudgingly millions for the better- 
ment of her people, and should not hold back now the modest 
appropriation required to perpetuate the achievements on the 
battle field of Vicksburg. 




Minn, sola Stale Memori 



Memorial Commis>^io)i. 11 

KANSAS AT VICKSBURG. 

The question has been often asked, Why should Kansas erect 
a monument at Vicksburg: in preference to erecting one in our 
own state? 

There are two or three reasons. It was a whole generation 
after the close of the War of the Rebellion before the American 
people awoke fully to the fact that the siege and surrender of 
Vicksburg was of such tremendous importance to the Union 
cause that the statesmen of the nation took steps to preserve 
the traditions of that memorable event through the establish- 
ment of a great National Military Park, as a reminder to future 
generations of the achievements of their forefathers, whose 
sublime courage, fortitude and valor preserved this nation 
from dissolution. 

To this end the general government took over the land and 
has expended over one and a half millions of dollars in laying 
out and hard-surfacing roads, building bridges, erecting mark- 
ers and monuments, and otherwise beautifying this historic 
ground. 

Many states, both northern and southern, have erected 
monuments to the memory of their soldiers who participated 
in the campaign which resulted in dividing the seceding states 
and opening the Mississippi river to traffic. 

Kansas at the time of the siege of Vicksburg had raised 
thirteen regiments of troops, a larger quota in proportion to 
its voting population than any other northern state ; therefore, 
in having one regiment engaged in the Vicksburg campaign, 
probably had a larger per cent of its troops on the ground than 
any other state, and that those troops did their full duty is 
evidenced by the fact, while the average number of men killed 
in action or died of wounds in the Civil War in all the states was 
thirty-five per thousand, among Kansas troops the mortality 
was sixty-one per thousand — and yet Kansas has not erected 
a monument to their memory upon a battle field in the United 
States. 

Another pertinent question : Why statues of Lincoln, Robin- 
son and Deitzler? 

Your commission visited Vicksburg, having in mind as a 
suitable memorial for Kansas such characters as Jim Lane and 
John Brown, but found them ineligible, since the rules confine 




Liiion Navy Memorial 



Memorial Commission. 13 

representation strictly to those who commanded troops in the 
Vicksburg campaign. 

This limited us to General Deitzler; hence we decided to in- 
clude statues of Governor Robinson, who, as commander of 
state troops, and Lincoln, as commander in chief of the army, 
are both eligible. 

Another reason why Kansas should erect a monument upon 
the Vicksburg battle field is the fact that at the close of the 
war thousands of the men who fought there came to Kansas, 
where they continued the battle against drought, grasshoppers 
and populism, and won. 

They and their posterity made Kansas what it is to-day — the 
greatest agricultural state in the Union ; it is therefore fitting 
that the state should recognize what they did in its behalf. 

The "old boys" are now tottering upon the brink of the here- 
after, and if they are to witness the state's recognition of their 
services, in the shape of a monument of sufficient magnitude 
and dignity to be at all commensurate with their services to 
the state and nation, it will have to be speedily accomplished. 

A CHANCE TO PRESERVE KANSAS HISTORY. 

The campaigns and battles leading up to and including the 
siege of Vicksburg, extending from March 29 to July 4, 1863, 
were among the greatest of the Civil War; not so great as a 
few others in men and armament, but easily the greatest in re- 
sults, as it led directly to the final success of the Union forces. 
In this campaign were developed the greatest generals and 
military strategists of the Civil War. Grant, Sherman and 
Logan were developed here. 

President Lincoln, after the Vicksburg campaign, was not 
slow to discover in General Grant a master military mind, one 
that he could match against the great Confederate commander. 
Gen. Robert E. Lee. This outstanding fact concedes to the 
Vicksburg campaign the turning point of the Civil War. This 
fact alone will forever make the Vicksburg battle field a shrine 
in the hearts of our countrymen. 

From its hallowed ground a free people was saved, and to- 
day that freedom extends around the whole world. Every- 
where governments of oppression are giving way to the ad- 
vance of freedom. 





Park Observation Tower 



Memorial Comniis^i<))i. 15 

The territory of Kansas was one of the chief causes of the 
Civil War, and, indirectly, to the late World's Revolution. 

It is most fitting that Kansas should be properly represented 
in the Vicksburg National Military Park, in granite and bronze, 
that the world may ever know the part Kansas took in the 
cause of freedom. 

GOVERNOR ROBINSON AND GENERAL DEITZLER. 

In order to be eligible to a place in the National Military 
Park at Vicksburg, Kansas' hero characters must have had a 
part in the campaign that resulted in the capture of Vicks- 
burg. 

These requirements by the War Department eliminated some 
of the most noted characters of Kansas, such as John Brown, 
of Osawatomie, and Gen. James H. Lane, of Lawrence. Presi- 
dent Lincoln and Governor Robinson are eligible, since one was 
commander in chief of the army and navy and the other com- 
mander in chief of the Kansas troops. 

A careful search of the records will show that Governor 
Robinson and General Deitzler stood in the first line during the 
territorial days to make Kansas a free state. Their counsels 
were always sought, and they took an active part during the 
border-ruffian war from 1856 to 1861 in repelling the pro- 
slavery hordes that tried to overrun Kansas territory to make 
it a slave state. They also were at different times members of 
the territorial legislature, and were both arrested and im- 
prisoned for treason. These two occupied a prominent place 
at that time in the hearts of all free-state people. 

When the war between the North and the South was de- 
clared in 1861, and Kansas admitted to the Union, Robinson 
was elected the first governor, and General Deitzler was made 
colonel of the first Kansas regiment organized. 

Their records entitle them to all the honors which the pro- 
posed memorial so fittingly betokens. 

CHARLES ROBINSON, WAR GOVERNOR OF KANSAS. 

Governor Robinson was born at Hardwick, Mass., July 21, 
1818. He studied and practiced medicine at Belchertown, 
Mass. 

In 1848 he was stricken with the "gold fever" and emigrated 
to California. Failing to amass a fortune in the mining busi- 
ness, he turned his attention to politics, and served a term in 
the legislature of that state. 



Kansas Vickshurg National Park 




Mississippi State Memorial 




Rhode Island State Memorial 



iVIassachusetts Slate Memorial 



Memorial Commis.'^ion. 17 

Returning again to Massachusetts, he was employed by 
Eli Thayer to act as agent for the New England Emigrant Aid 
Society (of which society Mr. Thayer was the organizer and 
manager), and in that capacity came to Kansas. 

To make any extended mention of the activities of Robinson 
after his arrival in the territory would be to write a history of 
Kansas, for, with the possible exception of one man — James H. 
Lane — Robinson was the leading character in the great con- 
flict to prevent the establishment of human slavery in the new 
territory. 

It was because of his pronounced opposition to the proslav- 
ery element, which in the beginning succeeded by fraudulent 
means in dominating the political affairs of the territory, that 
Robinson was arrested and thrown into prison charged with 
treason. 

Upon his release he took a leading part in the organization 
of the Free-state party, which led to the repudiation of the 
acts of the bogus legislature, the nullification of the Lecompton 
constitution, and ultimately, through the action of the Big 
Springs convention, resulted in the adoption of the Wyandotte 
constitution and the election of Robinson as the first state 
governor, a position which carried with it the tremendous 
responsibility of guiding a legislature in the enactment of laws 
for the government of the new state. 

So well did he perform that duty that to-day, after sixty 
years, the same constitution and many of the laws which were 
adopted in those early days are still in force. 

As a tribute to his patriotism, executive ability and stead- 
fastness of purpose, under the most trying circumstances, in 
the cause of freedom and humanity, it is fitting that the state 
should honor his memory by placing his statue in the great 
National Military Park at Vicksburg, as an integral part of the 
memorial to the soldiers of Kansas who participated in that 
campaign. 

GEN. GEORGE V^^. DEITZLER. 

General Deitzler, one of the famous "treason prisoners" to 
be taken from Lawrence to Lecompton, afterwards prominent 
in the public affairs of the territory and state of Kansas, and 
prominent in the Civil War, was born at Pine Grove, Schuylkill 
county, Pennsylvania, November 30, 1826. 

He received a common-school education and removed to Kan- 
sas, where he became one of the prominent figures of the Free- 



18 



Kansas Vicksburg National Park 




THE BARNARD LINCOLN. 



Memorial Commission. 19 

state party. He was a delegate to the Topeka convention, and 
in May, 1856, was one of the seven men who were arrested at 
Lawrence and taken to Lecompton under guard of F'ederal 
troops. They were known as the "treason prisoners" and were 
kept in a prison camp for several months. 

During the winter of 1857-'58 he was a member and speaker 
of the Kansas house of representatives, and was reelected. 
Subsequently he was elected mayor of Lawrence, and also 
served as treasurer of the State University. 

At the outbreak of the Civil War he was made colonel of the 
First Kansas ; was seriously wounded at the battle of Wilson's 
Creek, August 10, 1861, and never entirely recovered. He re- 
mained in the service, however, and was promoted to brigadier 
general, but resigned in 1863. 

During Price's raid he rendered great service in protecting 
the border. In 1864, he was commissioned major general of 
Kansas militia. 

General Deitzler was killed by being thrown from a carriage 
at Tucson, Ariz., April 11, 1884. 

The foregoing biographical sketch of General Deitzler is 
taken from William E. Connelley's history, "Kansas and Kan- 
sans." 

BARNARD'S LINCOLN. 

Barnard, the young sculptor, has come into fame as one of 
the great artists of America, through his cast of Lincoln. His 
Lincoln is one of the greatest. Scores of sculptors and artists 
have bid for fame through models of the Great Emancipator. 
But when done, similarity was all the claim they held — a com- 
mercial commodity only. From all these efforts only two have 
stood the critics' test and brought fame to their sculptors. 

Barnard's Lincoln portrays Lincoln as he was before 1861, 
the plain frontiersman of the western world. His beardless 
face, with discerning eyes reflecting the action of his mighty 
brain, and his muscular body clothed plainly and coarsely, 
bring out Lincoln's strength of character in a most impressive 
way. 

The size of Barnard's Lincoln attracts attention, as it stands 
twelve feet eight inches high — just double Lincoln's size in 
every way. The artist in using this great size brings out every 
line and muscle in such a way as to denote his force and char- 
acter above all others. 



20 



Kansas Vicksburg National Park 




Illinois Slate Memorial 




Iowa State Memorial 



Memorial Commission. 21 

This immense statue in bronze placed on the Vicksburg 
battle field would attract attention above all the great monu- 
ments and statues there. 

What could be more fitting? Near him will stand his great 
general, Ulysses S. Grant, surrounded by his great generals, 
Logan, McClernand, McArthur, Smith, and many others. With 
them the great Sherman should stand. 

These men who swept on from Vicksburg with irresistible 
force, through the very heart of the Confederacy, to Atlanta, 
to the sea, and on to Richmond, never stopping until Lee sur- 
rendered at Appomattox. 

Kansas has made more history that she can be proud of, in 
her short life of sixty years, than any other state has made 
in the same period. As the crowning event to all this, the plac- 
ing of Abraham Lincoln, Gov. Charles Robinson and Gen. 
George W. Deitzler in bronze upon the Vicksburg battle field 
would be a most glorious memorial. 

STATE MONUiMENTS AT VICKSBUKG. 

Many of the states whose soldiers fought at Vicksburg have 
erected suitable and expensive memorials where their troops 
fought. Government and state appropriations to date are as 
follows : 

United States Government $1,513,530 

Illinois 310,000 

Iowa 150,000 

Wisconsin 130,000 

Ohio 5(5,000 

Mississippi 50,900 

Missouri 50,000 

Louisiana 50,000 

Indiana 38,000 

Minnesota 25,500 

Michigan 20.000 

Pennsylvania 15,000 

New York 12,500 

Massachusetts 5,000 

New Hampshire 5,000 

Rhode Island 5,000 

Alabama 25,000 



22 



Karisas Vicki^hurg National Park 




Wisconsin State Memorial 




Monument 1 1th Wisconsin, Monument 21st, 22d and 23d Iowa, Missouri Gun, Tablets and Trench-Marker 



Memorial ( 'odi ni isxioii. 



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I 







THE NATIONAL CEMETERY. 

THE National Cemetery at Vicksburg-, fronting the river and blending 
into the northern end of the Military Park, although not of it, was 
established in 1865. Its originally beautiful natural site having thus had 
the benefit of time in which to be developed and appropriately softened 
and beautified into harmony with its sacred purpose, it stands to-day one 
of the most park-like and pleasingly impressive of all the national ceme- 
teries. With the possible exception of Arlington Heights, none can com- 
pare with it in general beauty. It certainly is one of the most magnifi- 
cent cemeteries ever devoted to the interment of the dead soldiers of any 
nation, and it is also (except Arlington) the largest of the eighty-two 
established and maintained by the general government in honor of its 
valorous defenders. It contains the graves of 16,822 Union soldiers who 
lost their lives in and around Vicksburg during the Civil War, of which 
the appalling number of 12,719 are "unknown." The cemetery is a mas- 
terpiece of landscape engineering, with delightful walks and drives, with 
ravines, terraces and plateaus, and with long avenues of trees, mostly 
Spanish oaks, supplemented with tropical plants and picturesque par- 
terres of flowers. The grounds occupy what was once the sides and crest 
of a forbidding blutf overlooking the river, but which is now a most charm- 
ing series of terraces, encircling a beautiful plateau from which is had a 
magnificent view, grand in extent and variety, including the serpentine 
course of the glittering river, its opposite shorQ fringed with verdant 
forest. 



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SHOW ING LINES OF SIEGE AND DEFEN'SE OF THE CITS . NATIONAL CI MtTf »> IN BACKCROLND. 



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